Many joints of the human body naturally articulate relative to one another. Generally, the articulation surfaces of these joints are substantially smooth and without abrasion. However, joints, such as shoulder joints, undergo degenerative changes due to a variety of causes, such as, disease, injury, exercise and other strenuous activities, and various other issues. When these degenerative changes become advanced, to the point of becoming irreversible, such joints or portions thereof may need to be replaced with one or more prosthetics.
In light of the degenerative changes found in shoulder joints, various shoulder prosthetics of conventional design have been proposed. However, conventional shoulder prosthetics and their associated surgical components suffer from many disadvantages. For example, glenoid components of conventional design are subject to various types of load forces, such as, shear forces, anterior/posterior forces, lateral/medial forces, and rotational forces, which may cause notching and chipping of bone and/or loosening of the implanted components, thereby reducing the lifespan of the prosthetic. In addition, such load forces may create a rocking moment causing glenoid components to cantilever, which can further result in notching and chipping of bone and/or separation of the glenoid component from the scapula. Furthermore, the loosening of conventional shoulder prosthetics may pulverize, grind, crush and deform portions of a scapula, for example, a glenoid cavity of a scapula, which as a result, can prohibit the replacement of a worn, damaged or non-functional shoulder prosthetic. For these and other reasons, there is a need for improved shoulder prosthetics.